Letter: Gate fees reinstated too soon

Cheers to operators of the Cross Island Parkway for not collecting tolls until mid-November. They recognize the impact Hurricane Matthew has had on the Lowcountry and understand how many folks from out of state have come to our rescue. And with the amount of Cross Island travel islanders are doing to obtain supplies, hardware, etc., it is very much appreciated.

Jeers to the plantations for reinstating gate fees so soon. My husband and I took the advice of not coming back to the island following the evacuation until as late as possible. We returned on Friday, Oct. 14. With so much devastation that many of our friends endured, we were lucky to return to only a punctured roof, some structural damage and many trees/branches down. We were not able to get anyone to address our issues until Sunday, Oct. 23 (when gate fees were re-instated in our plantation). We now have weeks’ worth (as do so many others) of clean-up and repairs. To reinstate these gate fees before we were even able to take advantage of it is going to cost a small fortune.

These plantations need to rip a page out of the Cross Island Parkway book. By charging members, we are assuming that everything is back to normal while we all know that is the furthest thing from the truth. I believe that lifting these gate fees for a bit longer would go a long way for morale. None of us anticipated needing so much help to come through the gates, and to collect fees so soon is adding insult to injury.

This story was originally published November 8, 2016 at 12:07 PM with the headline "Letter: Gate fees reinstated too soon."